"America's toughest sheriff" is a weenie
News broke this morning that embattled Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio
has opted out of debates with his two opponents.
Actually, he's only got one serious opponent, former Phoenix policeman Paul Penzone, who was endorsed by the Arizona Republic on Sunday. For decades, the conservative newspaper was a lapdog for the blowhard Arpaio, so you know he's not only lost some of his bluster, but his racist and unconstitutional antics have finally caught up with him, when the Republic endorses the other guy.
Arpaio's new warm and glossy TV ads paint a picture of a kindly grandpa, but the Republic sees through the lies:
Consider the record his ads skip over:
The years-long reign of terror waged by Arpaio against his political enemies. The vendetta against Maricopa County judges and the Board of Supervisors is top of mind, but Arpaio's record of targeting political enemies goes back more than a decade. The campaign against the judges and supervisors took this abuse of power to its zenith. Arizona Republic
The third candidate in the race, Mike Stauffer, has very little money, next to no organization, and hardly any support, so it's anyone's guess why he's remaining in the race. Some who remember how Arpaio's pal, Senator Russell Pearce, tried to run a
sham candidate during last year's recall election to siphon votes away from challenger Jerry Lewis, who eventually beat Pearce, suggest Stauffer may be a plant supported by
pro-Arpaio factions, in order to dilute Penzone's vote.
But it appears neither Stauffer not Penzone will have an opportunity to challenge Sheriff Arpaio face-to-face before the voters. That's really not surprising, given Arpaio's indefensible record, which the Republic reviewed in its Sunday endorsement. In addition to his vendettas, fearmongering, and police state tactics, the Sheriff is a sick joke who's cost the taxpayers of Maricopa County more than $50 million in lawsuits, mostly for unlawful arrests or jailhouse murders, at the same time he presides over the only county in the state that's seen an increase in crime. He's expensive and ineffective.
Attempting to persuade the GOP's fiscal conservatives, Penzone is also hammering away at financial malfeasance in Arpaio's office. For example, he misspent nearly $100 million intended for inmate services on a tank and other immigration task force boy toys. Earlier this year, three of his top aides were fired when the infamous Munnell Memo, written by a former deputy, brought to light the bribes, corruption, cronyism, and racism rampant in the Sheriff's Office. Most glaringly, Arpaio botched more than 400 sex crimes, some committed on children as young as two. He failed to prosecute the cases because he thought it was more important to investigate mortgage fraud in the tony suburb of Fountain Hills, where Arpaio happens to live.
And then there's his goofball birther investigation. When Arpaio was asked why a sheriff in Maricopa County, Arizona, of all places, was sending investigators to Hawaii to look into the President's birth certificate, he said it was because his constituents asked him to. Yeah, a handful of pasty white birthery tea party goobers urged him to. Funny, he didn't respond to the hundreds of families, many of them Hispanic, who asked him to investigate the rapes of their children.
Like most voters, I would have loved to have seen Sheriff Arpaio try to defend his record before the public, but apparently "America's toughest sheriff" is too much of a weenie to enter the ring. I guess we'll have to be satisfied with his defeat on Nov. 6. Paul Penzone is within 5 or 6 points of Arpaio and his multi-million-dollar war chest, and the Sunday Republic endorsement should close the gap. Let's make this happen!
Paul Penzone: The New Sheriff